


Can You Hear Barking In Space?

by KrzysztofPine



Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Age Regression/De-Aging, Alien Biology, Alien Cultural Differences, Alien Planet, Animal Ears, Brothers, Different Character Age, Family, Fluff, Found Family, Friendship, Half-Human, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Jim and Bones are Brothers, Natural Disasters, Post-Star Trek Beyond, References to War, Slaughter, Tails, USS Kelvin, Violence, dog hybrids, near death experiences mentioned, original alien race
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-16
Updated: 2020-03-16
Packaged: 2021-03-01 01:40:30
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,758
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23177092
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KrzysztofPine/pseuds/KrzysztofPine
Summary: He realizes that something is wrong after Spock pulled him into the small alien ship before he was spat out into space. Spock is looking at him strangely, Jim looks him in the eyes “What?”.
Relationships: Crew of the Starship Enterprise & James T. Kirk, James T. Kirk & Leonard "Bones" McCoy
Comments: 2
Kudos: 25





	Can You Hear Barking In Space?

**Author's Note:**

> If there are any speling mistakes or anything smiliar I'm sorry . I made up some race akin to Caitians but dogs. They are called Torans.
> 
> ~Enjoy

“You can't hide anymore Jim" 

Bones stares at the young half-human. Ginger dog ears, sharp teeth, especially canine ones, spots and light fur on the skin. He can see from behind the bar top fluffy ginger tail swinging from side to side. On the bar lies something akin to hearing aid, but he knows what it is. The device allows the carrier to change their looks. He looks up to stare into big, youthful, impossibly blue eyes. 

"But I have to Bones. Nobody will trust me if I don't hide it." 

"Admiralty trust you." He says and waits for a reaction. He doesn’t have to wait long, Jim looks down at the device, he sighns and his ears went down, his tail came to stop.

“Only because of Pike, and do you even know what a PR disaster it would be if they would dismiss me and everyone would know that Starfleet's Captain is one of the most violent species in the universe.”

Bones furrowed his brows and scowled “Okay, first of all, you are not like your whole species and you are only half Toran, second isn’t Starfleet about differences, you know discovering what’s new and shit like that.”

Jim gives him a look “ But don’t you think that people wouldn't be disturbed if they found out that they are lead by 17 year old, in human years because both of us know that I age like Toran. Bones that would be a shit storm.”

“Well everyone thinks you will be thirty soon.” Bones thinks for a while then smiles “ I can’t believe you will be an adult in a few days, I will be able to drink with you normally finally.” he said while looking at Jim’s apple juice.

Jim laughs and rolls his eyes “ I want vodka.”

Bones shakes his head and drinks the rest of his drink “In a few days, kid.”

_________________________________________________________________________

He realizes that something is wrong after Spock pulled him into the small alien ship before he was spat out into space. Spock is looking at him strangely, Jim looks him in the eyes “What?”

Spock still doesn’t say anything, he just looks at his face then at the top of his head. The realization hit Jim like a train, his hand sharply shot up to feel behind his left ear. There was nothing behind it. His eyes widen “No, no no…” he can feel panic washing over him.  
He quickly looks at Bones, catches his eyes in the window reflection.

“Well shit, Spock can you steer for a moment.” Bones said. They quickly switch places, Bones kneels before Jim.

He takes Jim’s face in his hands “ Hey look at me, don’t panic.”

Jim looks at Bones like he had gone crazy “ How can I not panic?! It broke and now everyone will see that I am a monster and everyone will hate me and I’m going to be alone again. I can’t be alone any more Bones, I can’t do it again, I won’t…” he was hyperventilating, dark spots start to form behind his eyes. Jim leans against Bones heavily.

“Hey, hey don’t pass out on me, come on breath like me, in, out, in out. It’s okay, shhhh, just breathe.” Bones is holding him against his chest and quietly whispers into his ear. He can feel himself slowly calming down. He closes his eyes and breaths out as he listens to Bones’s calm heartbeat. It was one of the things that were done in his clan when he was a child, listening to familiar heartbeat has calming effects on Torans, they can recognize which heartbeat belongs to who, he can recognize heartbeats of all of his friends.

“You with me now, kid?” Bones looks down at him with a worried gaze.

Jim gives him a small smile “ Yeah, I’m good. Thanks, Bones” he is grateful, that he has Bones for a best friend, but to be honest, Bones isn’t just his best friend, he is Jim’s only family. His older brother, he would do anything for Bones and he knows Bones would do anything for him, hell he fought death and won for him.

“Everything is going to be okay kiddo, we will figure it out.”

Jim can feel tears sting his eyes, he closes them and whimpers out“ How can it be, it’s not like I can hide my face now.” hurtful words wash over his mind and he can feel some of the tears run down his cheek that escaped from behind his lids.

Bones wipes his tears with his thumb and says “ I won’t let anyone hurt you, Jim. Never again kid, understand.” he hears Bones's voice break a little, Jim looks up to meet Bones glazed over gaze.

“Hey, Bones don’t start crying now. Please don’t cry, because I will cry.” Jim feels the arm around him tighten a little more as Bones buries his face in Jim’s hair. Jim’s ears twitch. 

“I could have lost you, Jimmy, I wouldn’t be able to go through that again. Don’t do that to me again you little shit.” Jim hugs Bones with such force that almost knocks both of them over.

“I also thought that I lost you, so I think we are even, right?” he hears Bones laugh a little.

“Right as rain, you mutt.” Bones mutters with a smirk.  
Jim barres his canines and growls a little “ Not a mutt.”

“ Okay, okay don’t bite my head off.” 

They can feel ship land and they turn to look at Spock. He stares at them, then says “ Doctor McCoy is right Captain, no harm will come to you. I also won’t let anyone harm you and will stand in your defense. I’m sure the remaining Enterprise crew will also agree with me.”

“See even hobgoblin agrees with me, Jim that’s a sign from the universe. That kind of stuff doesn’t happen often.”

Jim gives them a little, but genuine laugh “ I’m scared to face everyone.” he is still holding Bones like he is his lifeline, well that’s not a lie.

“If that would make you feel better Captain, I can come out first and explain everything for you.” Spock says.

“ You would?” Jim asks hopefully looking up at him.

Spock nods his head and smoothly gets up. When he stands before the entrance to the ship he turns to them and says “ I will call you when everything will be settled.” with that he pushes a button on the panel next to the doors, they swish open and closes behind him.

Bones looks down at Jim and sees his tail slowly swinging from side to side on the floor, his eyes are barely open, guess the adrenaline went down “ Go to sleep, kid. I will wake you up when Spock gets back .”

With that Bones leans against the wall of the small alien ship and looks down at Jim, his eyes are closed and his breath evens out. Reassured, Bones also closes his eyes, he doesn’t even know when he fell asleep.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________

Bones jerks awake at the sound of opening doors, he looks up at Spock who is standing in the ship entrance then quickly looks down at Jim. He is awake and is rubbing his eyes like a tired child with his hands, his ears jerks a little.

“It’s safe to go out?” Jim asks with a sleepy voice.

Spock looks at him with soft eyes “ Yes it is, Jim”

Jim looks at him for a little while then, drops his head back on Bones’s chest and buries his face in his shirt.

Bones rolls his eyes “ Get up you drama queen.” he says while helping him standing up.

Together they walk out of the ship into the daylight, they have to squint their eyes, it's way darker inside the ship.

Jim looks around at his crew, their stares make him uncomfortable. Bones notices that and barks “ Okay all of you get your asses to hospital, especially you Spock, once everyone will be dealt with we will talk. Come on Spock” with that Bones starts to walk towards hospital supporting Jim, he couldn’t really throw Jim’s arm around his shoulders because of their height difference, with Spock on his hills.

The last thing the remaining crew could hear was Jim saying “ You bark better than me, Bones”

Once everyone was healed and checked over, they meet up in Jim’s hospital room. Jim and Bones are sitting on the biobed, Spock right beside them in a plastic chair, Uhura is leaning against the wall near the window, Chekov and Sulu are standing near the doorway, on the couch beside them are sitting Scotty and Jaylah.

The tension hangs in the air until Jim blurs out “ I’m sorry.”

Everyone in the room sharply turns towards Jim, his ears hang low, he is almost curled up with his tail protectively around him, they are sure if he was standing his tail would be between his legs.

“ You have nothing to be sorry for Captain.” Scotty says.

“I lied to you so much, you don’t know me at all and I’m so sorry about that.”

“Maybe we don’t know everything but we know that you are a selfless, kind, protective and smart man and so much more. You were only protecting yourself, we will never hold that against you, Jim.” Uhura says that in a kind voice.

“But I’m a monster-” Jim wasn't able to finish what he was saying because Bones flicked his ear with his finger “ Ow Bones, what the-”

“Never say that you are a monster, Jim. Just because your race did some awful things, it doesn’t mean that you did them and that you are at fault here. You are way better than them, kid.” Bones smiles “ They are not mad at you Jim. Now star explain everything to them, I’m sure at the end their faces will be worth laughing at.”

Jim’s body opened a little “ Okay so it all started when my dad meet my mom on starbase when the ship he was on docked there for a while. He heard a lot about Torans, that they were violent and cruel but my mom was nothing like that. I will spare you all the boring stuff about how they fell in love etc. They got married and shortly after that my brother was born, they bought a house in Australia, my dad is from Iowa, he suggested to live there but it was too cold for my mom. Six years later my mom got pregnant with me, my dad went on the last trip before his leave and took my mom along, they left Sam with dad’s younger brother in Iowa. You all know the history of U.S.S Kelvin. After that my mom couldn’t stay on Earth, too many memories. Sam looked like dad, human, and I looked like mom, more like toranian. She left Sam back on Earth with Uncle Frank and took me back to Toran. When I was about six human years, the planet became unstable, Starfleet send their scientist to find out what is happening. Something about the center of the planet melting through the ground , I don’t really remember, but it was causing it to slowly self destruct. The P’ngt decided to evacuate out whole race to planet nearby that was inhabited by a small race named Kobnt. When the ships landed it turned out that there was no enough space for two races to live there, my race started to kill all kobnts, they slaughtered them. Me and my mom stayed there for a month or two but we left after the massacre. When we were flying back to Earth I saw pieces that were left of my planet. Back on Earth we moved into the farmhouse Uncle Frank and Sam lived in, my mom went back to Starfleet as an engineer and went on her trip year later. There was a problem to which class I should go, torans age differently I don’t really know how to convert it to human years but for example, if I would be a human this year I would be turning thirty years old but because I age like toran this year I’m going to be eighteen torian years.”

His crew's eyes widen at that.

“Wait you mean that you will be an adult THIS year?” Sulu asks with wide eyes.

“Yup”

“That means you became a Kapitan when you vere fourteen.” Chekov says with amazement in his eyes.

“Fascinating” Spock says with wonder in his voice.

“After they figured out to which class I should go Uncle Frank and Sam started to be cold towards me, they hated me because in their minds I was the reason dad died and that the actions of my race were my fault, that I’m like them. Kids in school avoided me, some even bullied me and back at the farmhouse wasn’t much better. Frank hated me and was a drunk, so I think you can figure out what were the results of that, Sam didn’t give a shit about me and after a while, he ran away I didn’t see him since I don’t know where he is or if he still is alive. A few years later when I was twenty one human years I meet Chris, he dared me to sing into Starfleet and gave me the Changer, the device that helped me to look like a normal human. In the shuttle, I meet Bones and we became friends, he found out that I’m not fully human a little after the second semester started. We went through the academy together and he is my only family, my mom died on a mission in the second year of the academy, Frank was killed by some gang because he oved money to them and Sam is God knows where. And you know, the Narada happened, Khan and now this whole Krall shit.” Jim can feel tears welling behind his eyes but this time he doesn’t have the strength to push them away so he let them go. He starts quietly sobbing but he doesn’t think about the embarrassment that he would normally feel if he started crying right in front of his crew. Everything that happened just hit him with full force. He can feel Bones hugging him, he turns towards him and hides his head in his chest. 

A few seconds later he can feel others also hugging him, his tail tarts happily swing from side to side and for the first time in what it feels like years he thinks that everything is going to be okay.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________

It’s a few days after the birthday party his crew did for him. All of them got a few months of vacation. He is lying on a blanket in a park with Uhura sitting beside him. Bones is somewhere with Spock, they started to get along, which was awesome if you asked him.

“So can you bark?”

Jim snaps out of his thoughts “ Of course I can bark.”

“Then speak.” she says jokingly. Jim rolls his eyes, it’s bad enough when only Bones is giving him dog commands, despite that he barked, loudly. His ears perk up when he hears a responding bark. He looks in the direction of the sound and sees a female dog swinging her tail happily looking at him.

Uhura starts laughing hard enough to fall over.

“Well kid, it looks like you found yourself a girl.” Jim’s head jerks up in the direction of a deep voice.

“Oh shut up Bones.” but despite that Jim is laughing, tail swinging happily when he sees his favorite person in the whole universe with Spock right beside him.

Suddenly a smell hits Jim’s nose “ What’s that.” his ears standing up.

“ That’s the reason why I can’t hide anything from you, you bloodhound. You will track everything down.” Bones grumbles “ It’s a bone.” 

Bones throws it at Jim, he catches it easily and immediately bites into it. Bones rolls his eyes at the crunching sound and sits beside him, Spock sits beside Uhura.

At this moment he realizes that there was nothing to be scared of and even if this whole Krall incident brought so much tragedy with it, it also had one good outcome. After a while Scotty, Jaylah, Keenser, Chekov, Sulu and his family joined them, Jim looked at his friends and new found family and promised himself that he will never lie to those amazing people.

**Author's Note:**

> T' ngt - leader/king in Toran
> 
> I made art for the fic - https://krzysztofpinepl.tumblr.com/post/612783802088095744/its-ilustration-of-jim-for-my-fic-on-ao3-xd-name


End file.
